Sunday 16 July 2023
Net Zero and Bulldozers
Julian Mann has a depressing TCW piece on the C of E’s bulldozer enthusiasm for Net Zero.
The C of E’s Net Zero mania
CONFIRMATION services in the Church of England are about to become politicised after the General Synod voted to include a liturgical response to ‘the climate emergency’.
The July sessions in York saw the bitter divisions in the C of E laid bare, particularly over sexual morality and in the row over the sacking by the Archbishops’ Council of two members of the Church’s Independent Safeguarding Board. It was on the last morning of the five-day hate-in that the Synod voted overwhelmingly for the ‘Responding to the Climate Emergency’ motion moved by the suffragan Bishop of Reading, Olivia Graham, on behalf of Oxford Diocese.
A firm believer in the bulldozer as a means of achieving Net Zero in the national Church’s property portfolio, Bishop Graham intoned in her concluding remarks in the debate last Tuesday: ‘On buildings retro-fitting is not always the answer. We need bespoke solutions for each building clearly and sometimes the bulldozer is the best one but sometimes retro-fitting is and we have just completed our first retro-fit in Oxford Diocese at the cost, I believe, of £75,000 but we now have a Net Zero vicarage. We hope that it is the first of many.’
She further proclaimed: ‘Ninety per cent of a church’s entire carbon footprint lies with the congregation . . . Let us be in no doubt, Synod, that we cannot invent or spend our way out of this crisis. It’s going to need us to change.’ In case you think I am making this up, here is a video of the debate, with Bishop Graham making her appearance about two hours in.
Quite mad, but the whole piece is well worth reading as a reminder of the destructive link between bulldozers and political fads.
Thus salvation, according to the new secular eco-religion endorsed by the C of E, would appear to be by building works rather than by the grace of God, and works that millions of working people in Britain are not able to afford. A diocese such as Oxford, one of the wealthiest in the C of E, may well be able to afford to create Net Zero vicarages but for many people struggling to pay their mortgages re-fitting their homes would be an unbearable burden.
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7 comments:
You rarely see proper accounting (money or CO2) is these proud claims of meeting Net Zero.
I have a 10 year old Euro 6 diesel car. It has low mileage each year, so there is no financial or environmental case for replacing the car early. The cost of production is a huge 'investment' which would not 'pay off' in its lifetime.
Similarly my 1980s house is already reasonably insulated and I believe that insulating it to the Net Zero requirement is simply not possible. The only way of achieving better insulation would be to tear it down and rebuild it. Again the cost of rebuilding is unlikely to be offset by lower running costs.
So Net Zero? It will need more than pious hopes.
She does have a point. My wife's church is a cavernous Mediaeval stone structure with a fifty-foot high ceiling and draughty holes under the eaves. It features in an iconic view from the South Downs way, so there's no way it could have heat-pumps or solar panels fitted. Best to bulldoze it.
The property manager in the diocese is actually a smart bloke. He is carefully modifying selected properties in a controlled manner to see where viable changes might be made. But the "activists" are as thick as mince. Enthusiastic ladies in late middle age who have some pet project that they can bang on about (heat pumps...more insulation...wilding the churchyard...planting fruit trees...woodchip furnace for the rectory...etc) without ever thinking about the cost or consequences.
DJ - we aren't rushing to replace our diesel either. We don't do a high mileage and the car market is too uncertain anyway. Our house is 1930s and there isn't much point trying to make it much more energy efficient, any return on the cost wouldn't be worth it.
Sam - remove any heating and lighting from churches and they become Net Zero. The next step could be for all Net Zero churches to invite their local MP to attend regularly and sample the benefits. January would be a good month to begin.
Ever wonder why medieval churches, cathedrals, mansions do not have fireplaces. Except in the kitchen.
Did the builders of these places wear layers of very expensive clothing in order to venture out every chilly morning to chisel another stone.
How could do many serfs survive in pre coal days to feed themselves their aged parents, their many children and have a surplus for the Lord of the Manor, the priesthood and the many stone chiselers.
It is a mystery. This was before Global Warming, Climate Change/Chaos/Whatever.
Doonhamer - closer to home, I've often tried to recall what it was like growing up in the fifties with no central heating, only a coal fire in the living room and no upstairs heating. We must have used more calories keeping warm, but until TV came chairs were grouped around the fire and we were accustomed to lower temperatures elsewhere in the house.
"Ninety percent of a church's carbon footprint lies with the congregation.." .
So, if the congregations stayed away from the churches, the pious numpties would be well on their way to obtaining net zero.
I wonder if the lady has proposed this to the Imams and Muftis of the RoP, as the mosques close to where I live, are choc a block on Fridays.
Penseivat
Penseivat - good point, Welby could explain it to leaders of all faiths and suggest they all move together on it. Net Zero means stay away he could tell them.
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